When are kids old enough to start operating tractor?

[farmfun]

I having a round table discussion the other day, and the subject came up of when people started operating tractors. An older fellow said he had his 7 and 9 year old grandsons cutting grass with his riding mower.

It stunned me a little, I initially thought it was too young. Then I was thinking back, geez I learned to drive a boat when I was 10 years of age. Of course it was always under the direct supervision of my dad. By 14 years of age I was guiding people by myself though larger bodies of water in pretty adverse conditions.

Anyways......my son is 9 years old, is that to young? I've been teaching him with my john deere z465 (Its a zero turn mower).

That age is NOT out of the question but the conditions of the area, his maturity and his size impact the answer. Urban/suburban society tend to coddle more than those of us from the farm regions. The open areas of the farm gave me opportunities to do many things that city kids couldn't try till they were in college! All these other experiences play into what is an appropriate task to assign and how to teach it.

 

[scrappy isb67]

As I was mowing yesterday, I was thinking of just this topic. I have 2 boys just shy of 9 - one of which has been looking forward to driving the tractor. He is generally a bit unfocussed, but understands a tractor is serious and brings his "A" game. When I quiz him on the steps for stuff like mowing, he works straight through a mental list - ROPS, seat belt, engine speed, PTO position, PTO, etc. I am sure he could mow the flat, football field sized section of our lawn but for one thing. He is thin and cannot reach the pedals with enough weight on the seat to go forward and still keep it running. When I drove tractor (at about his age) I had no ROPS, no seat belt and had speed controlled by hand throttle. My question on this topic is around pedal extension or an alternate solution for a short light driver on a John Deere 2520?

Thanks, Ray

get him on the tractor with you , set the cruise and tell him to turn the key off if anything goes wrong. then you get off the tractor. by setting the cruise YOU can control how fast he goes.

We all know how easy tractors tip over and the like, and look how many grown adults have come here to report an accident. I think a well trained kid could handle "nominal" operation of a tractor, but I don't think they have the mental capacity to think about multiple hazard scenarios or anticipate problems. That only comes with age and experience.

experience doesn't happen without doing.

I started at age 8 on a cabbed 4020 blading summerfallow. Dad started me out and came back at noon to get me for dinner, then back at it till 5 PM. I didn't have any problems. The cabs were loud so I played the radio louder.

I think each kid is different and you have to be a judge of maturity. You don't put a kid on a tractor to grow him up. You have to have a grown up kid.

Today some of this stuff is so expensive I think the bigger question is how much can you afford to lose.

I think each kid is different and you have to be a judge of maturity. You don't put a kid on a tractor to grow him up. You have to have a grown up kid.

Today some of this stuff is so expensive I think the bigger question is how much can you afford to lose.

This aspect and the chance of a lawsuit, make it a careful decision..I cannot affort to hurt one of the kids, even if it destroyed the tractor??[/QUOTE]

I am willing to lose everything BUT my daughter! I can replace everything else!


My daughter is 9 and is very mature for her age. I cut her loose in the 1 1/4 acre field next to the house. i mow ~6 passes around the field and set the cruise and get off letting her do the remainder. she was instructed if she thinks she is in trouble to just shut off the key(which she has). she has ridden with me on the tractor for several months. she paid attention to what I was doing and learned quickly. she has also driven the tractor around the yard by herself following me so I could put yard debris in the bucket. I trust her with the tractor because she is very mature for her age and has shown me the desire to do it. I won't let her run the tractor without me close by though. but IMHO, that is the only way for her to gain experience.
I am not going to ask her to mow my main yard until later(after she gains more experience with obstacles) and she will not mow my ditches. the only one that will mow the ditches is me, I won't let my wife or even my 35yr old buddy mow the ditches. The ditches scare ME while operating. But I have lots of experience with off camber situations, everyone else has not. they would be safe with the ROPS and seatbelt but their lack of experience is what stops me from letting them.

 

[kiotiken]

I having a round table discussion the other day, and the subject came up of when people started operating tractors. An older fellow said he had his 7 and 9 year old grandsons cutting grass with his riding mower.

It stunned me a little, I intiatally thought it was too young. Then I was thinking back, geez I learnt to drive a boat when I was 10 years of age. Of course it was always under the direct surpervision of my dad. By 14 years of age I was guiding people by myself though larger bodies of water in pretty adverse conditions.

Anyways......my son is 9 years old, is that to young? I've been teaching him with my john deere z465 (Its a zero turn mower).

My kids will not touch my ztr until they are much older than that, probably in their teens. I believe that is the most dangerous tractor I have, wet grass + hills + inexperience = disaster. I am planning on letting them use my JD riding mower somewhere between 8 and 10, they love riding with me on the Kioti now and I've stood beside them (behind the stabilizer) and introduced them to digging with the bh. They will likely be 10 - 12 before they can drive the tractor with my supervision and teenagers before they can use it without me being right beside them.

 

[farmfun]

Perhaps here's an example of how NOT to do it ... :thumbsup:


Dad arrested after child drives car into house | ajc.com

Dad arrested after child drives car into house

By Angel K. Brooks

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A man was arrested Monday night after his 9-year-old daughter drove a car into a house in Conyers, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Conyers police told Channel 2 that the family's car was parked at a vacant house. The girl intended to back the car out of the driveway, but she accidentally put the car in drive and slammed into the home, which suffered structural damage.

Neighbor Frankie Juanita Brown told Channel 2 that the collision sounded "like thunder."

She said the girl's father was in the passenger's seat and was going to let her drive the car back to her mother's house a few doors down.

The father was arrested and charged with reckless conduct, police said.

His name was not released in order to protect the identity of the child, Channel 2 said.

 

[ruffdog]

A 3 year old dies when run over by 7 year old driving skid steer

3-year-old boy dies in skid steer incident | Wausau Daily Herald | wausaudailyherald.com

 

[FunnelWeb]

I was 6 when I starters "driving" a tractor. I would do it while we were feeding hay to our dairy herd.

My legs were too short to reach the brake and clutch pedals so my dad would put the tractor in gear and let the clutch out. He would then jump off the tractor and run around the back to the carryall. He would jump on the back and then I would use the hand throttle to get up to an appropriate speed. While I steered the tractor around the paddock, dad would throw out the hay.

When it was time to stop, I'd throttle back and dad would jump off the carryall, run back around to the tractor and climb aboard.

This would have been about 1975.

 

[ultrarunner]

I was 6 when I starters "driving" a tractor. I would do it while we were feeding hay to our dairy herd.

My legs were too short to reach the brake and clutch pedals so my dad would put the tractor in gear and let the clutch out. He would then jump off the tractor and run around the back to the carryall. He would jump on the back and then I would use the hand throttle to get up to an appropriate speed. While I steered the tractor around the paddock, dad would throw out the hay.

When it was time to stop, I'd throttle back and dad would jump off the carryall, run back around to the tractor and climb aboard.

This would have been about 1975.

For me it would have been about a decade earlier...

I can't express the feeling of being useful, trusted and dependable that came about the first time my Grandfather let me "Drive" the tractor... it was not play time and I knew I was being of real help to him...

 

[John1961]

The ability to respond when something goes wrong is the key.

 

[Ed of all trades]

My Dad got sick when I was 10 and I was the one to get the work done. I had ben driving both tractors for years (ford jubile, farmall A) for a couple of years mom baled the hay and I did 90% of the rest. wont say it was the best run farm in the county but I got the work done. If I had not ben working at everything on the farm before that I could have never done it. We had 64 angus cows + calves and bulls, by age 14 we had over 100 cows and put up around 10,000 squaer bales a year. Today I run into upper teens that have fathers that are mechanical greats and the kids don't know what a set of vicegrips are. We need to teach our kids to work and how to work. It will binafit them and us. they get to learn to take care of themself and learn to know Dad in a way that they will never know if all they do is say hi as we walk by the chair they are sittin in. I am thankfull for the time my Dad spent listening to me and answering. teaching me to work and helping me to know him. What would a kid who does not now what a pair of vicegrips do if hardtimes come?

 

[Jagged1]

What would a kid who does not now what a pair of vicegrips do if hardtimes come?

That's similar to what I tell my wife when she gets all over-protective with my boys. I do feel like I need to do more to teach them to be self sufficient; and comparing theirs to my own childhood is night and day. All they WANT to do is play bleepin video games. Well my oldest does anyways, my youngest wants to learn but has no fear and that's not good either.

I still remember riding the old Cub Cadet hydrostatic garden tractor from my Grandpas with my Dad (around 5 or 6) through the village 1/4mi+ to borrow it to mow our lawn. He let me steer, throttle it up, and speed it up with the chrome hydro lever, from his lap of course. It's one of the few things I remember doing with my Dad before my parents divorced, so it made an impression to learn. I also remember helping him work on the family cars and such... but crusin through the village on that silly garden tractor seems to stand out.

As for doing things on my own, I used to mow our lawn (at around 9 or 10?) by myself and I ran into the car with the small rider we had. My Mom was not happy!

It was one of those small riders with the handlebar that turned when you swung it left or right. It had no seat-belt and I hit some ruts in the dirt/lawn along the driveway and when the tractor rocked over the bumps my first instinct was to try to use the handlebar to keep from falling off. Well all that did was make the tractor do a hard right into my Moms quarter-panel on her Chrysler Lebaron and dented it up a bit. I think that's the reason you don't see any more mowers with that type of steering anymore. There really wasn't anything to hold on to on that piece of junk design. Man, I can still see that car in my head right now; like it's burned into my brain!

Anyways I couldn't let my kids do much of my lawn anyways (maybe the backyard), as it is loaded with obstacles and banks and ditches and the front banks lead to a ditch on a the side of a main road... with a 6 in crumbling shoulder they'd end up in the State Highway upside-down. I even used to worry when the wife would mow the front yard! I think she got sick of me reminding her to be careful but I had to do it... I always felt it was my job, but I couldn't do it for a while. Actually the lawn needs mowing right now...

Back to the kids... We need a tractor that can be remotely controlled by a PS3 game controller. That way they wont get hurt and wont have to go outside and get TICKS or West-Nile or dirty. What I really want though is for a new tractor to spawn in the garage if they crash it!!! Like in their games... :laughing:

Later, Glen